Iain Duncan Smith tells the work and pensions select committee about the food bank trial in Manchester

Job advisers have been posted in a food bank as part of a trial that is set to be rolled out across the UK, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has announced.

People who turn to charities for help when they cannot afford to eat will be given advice on claiming benefits and finding work while they pick up emergency food parcels, Duncan Smith told the work and pensions select committee.

“I am trialling at the moment a job adviser situating themselves in the food bank for the time that the food bank is open, and we are already getting very strong feedback about that,” he said.

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“If this works and if the other food banks are willing to encompass this and we think it works, we think we would like to roll this out across the whole of the UK.”

Robert Devereux, the permanent secretary to the Department for Work and Pensions, who appeared alongside Duncan Smith at the hearing, said two advisers had been working one day a week at the Lalley Welcome Centre in Manchester.

Duncan Smith said: “They are to provide support to people who come in and that can include people saying, ‘I haven’t had my payment’”, giving the example of a claimant whose money was delayed because officials had not seen the right documents.

He added: “I asked how often is this happening, and they said: ‘Well, a bit.’ But what’s happening much more now is not people coming in with questions about their benefits, but they are actually interested in where [they] can find work.”

Sister Rita Lee, a nun at the Lalley welcome centre in Collyhurst, north-east Manchester, said it was her idea to invite advisers from the DWP to help the food bank clients. The project is run in conjunction with the Catholic church’s Caritas initiative.

She said: “I wrote to the minister and the prime minister and received very nice letters from them both, but it was Iain Duncan Smith who said we could have a meeting with him in London.”

Asked whether she met Duncan Smith or one of his associates, the nun said: “We saw the minister. I wouldn’t settle for anything less!”

She said the meeting happened about three months ago and the DWP advisers started coming in about three weeks ago. They are able to help clients who are having benefits problems, for example, if they have been sanctioned, she said. “I think it’s a brilliant, brilliant thing that the government’s doing [this].”

Sister Rita said the food bank had been running for about nine years out of St Malachy’s RC primary school. The community centre provides support services and one-to-one advice from professionals including debt advisers and employment consultants, as well as the DWP staff.

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She said demand had grown and the food bank now had 120 visitors on the two days it is open each week, meaning that the service fed at least 300 associated children and family members. The food bank works with FareShare, a charity that takes waste and sends it to charities and community groups who transform it into nutritious meals.

MPs investigating benefit delivery have been told that long waits for benefit payments are the single biggest cause of food bank use and are forcing claimants into debt and “survival crime” such as shoplifting.

A survey of 51 of its food banks revealed clients typically experienced benefit delays of nearly five weeks, although waits of up to 20 weeks were not uncommon.

In a statement after the select committee meeting, the trust said: “We welcome the government’s interest in exploring new ways that the DWP might help people at food banks who have hit crisis as a result of problems with welfare delivery, but we would also suggest that there first needs to be a dialogue between the DWP and the Trussell Trust network about the possible challenges and opportunities that hosting DWP advisers in food banks could afford. We need to look at the most helpful ways for local jobcentres and food banks to work together.”

A food bank in the former home of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester. Photograph: Richard Stonehouse/Getty Images

The trust, which runs 400 food banks in the UK, said it has had positive discussions with some MPs about piloting DWP advisers in their food banks, but had not talked to Duncan Smith or his advisers about the feasibility of the scheme.

The statement said: “Whilst we are not aware of any pilots taking place in Trussell Trust food banks, we are very keen to see the results of any pilots currently being undertaken by the DWP in other food banks, and we would like to contribute to future discussions on the potential effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

“The Trussell Trust is always open to ideas that could help people facing hunger in the UK. We are keen to explore a full range of options, for example locating independent welfare advisers at food banks. We are also currently consulting food banks in the Trussell Trust network to gather their views about hosting DWP advisers in food banks.”

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Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The revelation that the government is considering placing DWP staff in food banks across the country, highlights the grim reality that people depending on emergency food aid is increasingly a central part of Iain Duncan Smith’s vision for our social security system.

“Under the Tories food bank use has risen exponentially, leaving more than a million people depending on emergency food. This is in no small part due to the secretary of state’s incompetent and callous running of the DWP.

“It is of course important that people are able to better access advice and support from DWP staff. However, the fact that Iain Duncan Smith is so relaxed about extreme food poverty that he has allowed it to become an accepted element of the national planning for the DWP is deeply worrying.”

Duncan Smith was giving his first oral evidence to the committee in the current parliament. In wide-ranging testimony, he also denied claims that changes to tax credits would undermine his flagship universal credit initiative.